Too early to book air for Phila to Buenos Aires Jan 2012?
 

I have an Antarctic trip already booked so my dates are not flexible. I know it's early but just wondered if anyone has input on that particular route or time of year selling out quickly. Right now it would be $1700 each for one-stop in Miami.

I'm the type that will pay a premium to not have to worry -- just buy them and put it to bed -- but I was hoping to not cross the $1500 threshold.

www.farecompare.com

www.kayak.com/buzz

www.cheapoair.com

currently some PHL EZE from $1300 MIA EZE from under $1k

www.lan.com great sales out of MIA sometimes also www.aa.com

might be worth flying down there on a cheapo to save

spring sales start pretty soon prices tend to get less...

Our daughter spent 6 months in Buenos Aires - leaving 7/2010 and returning 12/2010 - and we planned a flexible-date visit during that time - so I studied airfares for a while. I found during that time frame fares were usually in the $1500-1800 range with not a great deal of variability or trend. Just my limited experience, though. (There is also a non-stop from Dulles on UA - check that as well as the non-stop from MIA on AA).

Thanks qwovadis and gail. I've been using kayak and lan's sites -- the others mentioned including aa and united don't show dates that far out yet so I guess that kind of answers my question right there!

It's helpful to hear that $1500-$1800 is more or less standard. But I'll hope for a sale but not wait too long to book I guess.

That's right, it is too early. You will need to wait a couple of weeks at least until all the airlines have seats on the market.

I checked for fares earlier in the month when United has published fares.

PHL-EZE with a stop in Houston or Dulles for Jan 3-17 $1481 fare (T fare) or $1560 all in. From dulles the ticket is about $100 more for a connection (V for the IAD segments, L for the EZE segments) via HOU or over $2000 for the nonstop (Q fare).

United discount economy fares, from highest to lowest are MHQVWSTKL. I would buy a K or L fare anytime. If I was a worrier then I might go for an all-T fare.

They say it is better to buy tickets earlier in the week, so you might try today or tomorrow and compare with the results that I assume you got on Saturday.

I should have written MHUQVWSTKL (I forgot the U). I don't know what fare codes are for AA, but I have seen AA offer very low fares way in advance when UA is not really oompeting, YMMV.

Thanks mrwunrfl --
I can tell you I am not knowledgable about fare codes at all. I know that the cheapest I've been looking at were non-refundable and saw that you could pay an extra $500 or so and get refundable. It seems like it's not worth that. Are there other reasons for concern with buying cheapest code besides having to pay for any changes that, god forbid, we'd need to make?

Maybe you could tell me this if you check back in to this thread: if I book a ticket on, say, American's website and the first flight is operated by AA but the second is by it's partner LAN would I be worse off if a problem arose than if I bought a ticket where both flights were operated by same airline, like Continental?

I recently had a situation where I had Korean Air tix but the first leg was flying on United. When the United flight was delayed & we missed our connection there was a huge problem getting rebooked because of confusion with who held the money, had to release ticket, etc. We waited at United's customer service desk at the airport while the agent worked on it with a KA rep by phone for, no exageration, 3 hrs. Maybe that's an anomoly and there would usually be no difficulty if it is ticketed all the way through by one airline but just happens to use a partner to fly a leg. Or maybe that can end up being a problem if you need to get a leg changed? I wish I understood all of this better.

Anyway, my question basically is should I try to get a ticket where both flights are on same airline not a partner (even though booking both together). Any easy explanation?

Just to correct: that should say Delta not United in the Korean Air situation above.

As you've found out, there can be more issues with rebooking/refunding when flights get delayed/cancelled, or with other problems; when you have 3rd party or 4th party involved. But these things are rare, and it's hard to tell how many extra issues you'll face. Sometimes it's smooth, sometimes it's not.

Ha - waited for the AA prices to come out and the day they did everyone's jumped $300. Best now is around $1700. Crossing fingers they go back down a bit.

The only "deal" is Air Canada which goes through Toronto and adds many hours to our flight. Not worth it to me.

The Air Canada flight from Toronto stops in Santiago, Chile, so that would make it extra long.

Too bad AA doesn't have lower fares! yet?

I think that the airlines don't really compete until more buyers in the market. They don't have incentive to offer low fares now for January because people aren't buying now. The airlines can't predict, yet, what demand(or costs) will be so better to be safe.

Yes, I hate the game of chicken so I went ahead and bought when the prices dropped a tiny bit into the $1600s. Oh well, now I just can't look back and second guess if there's a sale.

I wonder how much the situation in the middle east will drive prices up - who knows. All I know is I'm booked :)

Then you got a good deal. Either the price you paid will go up or the price will go down and the price you paid for the :) today was worth the premium.

That's how I'm looking at it!
Thanks for your words of wisdom - I really need to learn more about airfare and different fare codes, etc.